The Marcellus Shale represents a dynamic system that has been changing for almost 400 million
years. While there is consensus on basic fracture patterns likely to occur in the Marcellus Shale as a result of
stimulation, the shale is not homogeneous, and different regions will react differently to the same hydraulic fracturing treatment. There will be areas with concentrated fractures and areas almost devoid of them, and while we can predict where those might be based on our understanding of howfractures form, there is not yet much observational data to support those
predictions.